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Remy to return to NESN booth Tuesday

Remy to return to NESN booth Tuesday

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By Ian Browne
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MLB.com |

BOSTON -- Jerry Remy has a piece of good news for Red Sox fans. The popular color analyst will be back in his familiar perch in the NESN broadcast booth on Tuesday night, when Boston opens its next homestand against the Colorado Rockies.

Remy has been out of work since May 28 after suffering an allergy attack and then pneumonia.

Due to his two bouts with lung cancer -- the most recent of which occurred a few months ago -- Remy did not immediately respond to oral medications, prolonging his recovery.

"I'll be able to return to the booth with no restrictions on Tuesday, and what caused this relapse or whatever it is, everything I've said at the beginning was true," said Remy. "I was working a Sunday game [May 26] and I had an allergy attack. I thought that would improve within a couple of days, and it actually got worse on the Monday night that I worked.

"So I went to the doctor on the following day and I was told at that time that I had pneumonia. So at that point, they put me on oral medication, which I thought would clear things up within a matter of days. Unfortunately, my body rejected the antibiotics that they put me on and continued to get worse, so from that point on, they admitted me to Mass. General, where I spent five days and was on a heavy dose of antibiotics. Within 48 hours, that made a tremendous difference in how I felt."

Remy has had several short-term illnesses in recent seasons.

"It's hard, because the same thing has happened three years in a row," Remy said. "I've come down with these allergies, and then in the process, now we're trying to find out what I'm allergic to and what's starting this stuff. Now, obviously my lungs are compromised because of having cancer twice.

"So any time I get some kind of illness, it seems to gravitate to my lungs and that makes things obviously more complicated. It's frustrating, but yet, on the other hand, things could be a lot worse. I'm just glad I'm past this recent episode and looking forward to getting back to what I enjoy doing the most -- and that's doing Red Sox games."

During his stay at Mass. General, Remy got good news on a follow-up CT scan on his lungs.

"The results of the radiation treatment [from March] were very, very good," Remy said. "That's a bit of a load off my mind. I guess that's probably about it. I can't think of anything else I might be missing except I miss doing my job and I'm thankful for NESN for being so understanding for everything I've been through and I'm looking very much forward to getting back into the booth and following this club into the playoffs."

Don't look for Remy to cut back on his schedule, be it for home games or road games.

"I'm going back full bore," Remy said. "There's no restrictions on travel. Until that Sunday, I felt fabulous. I had no after-effects of radiation, no after-effects of anything. I felt great and I just, all of a sudden, I went down in the dumps in a matter of days. But no, going forward, I had planned to complete my schedule and plan to complete it for a long time to come."

The 60-year-old Remy - who has been broadcasting Red Sox games since 1988 -- doesn't plan on putting away his microphone any time soon.

"Look, it's what I love to do," Remy said. "It's hard for me to sit back and not be able to do my job. Unfortunately, things like this are going to pop up. It's hard for me to deal with them. The fact is, I'm really looking forward to Tuesday night.

"It's part of my life and it's what I enjoy doing the most, and as I've always said, when I eventually retire from doing this, it will be much harder than when I retired as a baseball player. I still have the passion and love for what I do. I just plan on doing it for as long as NESN will have me."

Remy just had one more thing to add at the end of his conference call with reporters.

"Go Sox and go Bruins."

Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brownie Points, and follow him on Twitter @IanMBrowne. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.